30 March 2015

Exploring the NOAA/CIRES Twentieth Century Global Reanalysis Version 2c

Each reanalyses has its strengths and weaknesses. To better select the optimal dataset for your research, it's helpful to take several datasets out for a test spin.

I put our newest reanalysis dataset, the NOAA/CIRES Twentieth Century Global Reanalysis Version 2c, and a timely topic, Atmospheric Rivers (ARs), together into a data exploration exercise by visualizing a strong AR event from Dec 2004 to Jan 2005.

The atmospheric river that caused the Los Angeles flood of 1938

At least one person asked why I used a reanalysis that does not assimilate satellite water vapor data to study an atmospheric river (AR) event.

That's a good question because the NOAA/CIRES Twentieth Century Global Reanalysis Version 2c (20thCR V2c) only ingests three things: surface pressure, sea ice coverage and sea surface temperature. The rest of the analysis is generated by the physical models of NOAA's Global Forecast System (GFS).